http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-12696791
Posted on 10/20/2017 11:24:20 AM PDT by Red Badger
Joanie Simpson woke early one morning with a terrible backache. Her chest started hurting when she turned over.
Within 20 minutes, she was at a local emergency room. Soon she was being airlifted to a hospital in Houston, where physicians were preparing to receive a patient exhibiting the classic signs of a heart attack.
But tests at Memorial Hermann Heart & Vascular Institute -Texas Medical Center revealed something very different. Doctors instead diagnosed Simpson with Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, a condition with symptoms that mimic heart attacks. It usually occurs following an emotional event such as the loss of a spouse or child. That link has given the illness its more colloquial name: broken-heart syndrome.
In Simpson’s case, the event that she says tipped her over the edge was the recent death of her beloved Yorkshire terrier, Meha.
“I was close to inconsolable,” she said. “I really took it really, really hard.”
Simpson’s 2016 experience is described this week in the New England Journal of Medicine — not because of the dog’s role, according to one of her doctors, Abhishek Maiti, but because hers was a “very concise, elegant case” of a fascinating condition that research has established as quite real and sometimes fatal. Although not the first published case linking broken-heart syndrome to stress over a pet’s death, it underscores something many animal owners take as a given: that grieving for sick or deceased pets can be as gutting as grieving for humans.
A growing body of research supports this notion, which was echoed in a recent study that found pet owners with chronically ill animals have higher levels of “caregiver burden,” stress and anxiety. It’s the flip side of evidence that links pets to health and happiness, which gets more attention. ...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
We’ve had a dog and two cats die and it was painful. We have two dogs now that are 13. They’ll make another 4 tears, possibly. We’re regretting it but we hope we’ll out live them because we worry about what would happen to them.
Many humans are hateful evil creatures. Pets, not so much.
So you’re one of those “the dog only licks you because you’re salty” types I guess.
Only as ass would say “just a dog”.
I have two German shepherds that will be 10 in November. I will be 87 in November. So far we are all healthy but I told my daughter and son in law if I die and the dogs are older to have them put down and put in the grave with me, just because I wouldn’t want to cause them to change their life style for what ever time they had left. He shot back, “wouldn’t that be animal cruelty”, I ask him if he meant the putting down or putting them in the same grave with me. Seriously, we are so bonded that I pray they pass on before me. (not soon though)
We lost our pup Nemo on August 30th, he had suffered from Pulmonary Hypertension since late March and in August got pneumonia and his body just couldn’t fight it kept on getting worse and worse. Ultimately the pneumonia got better but his lungs were producing mucus non stop which was causing him difficulty breathing..he died in my brother in law’s arms which is how I wanted him to go..to be surrounded by his family who loved him so much. I miss him every single day we had him for 11 years(Pomeranian mix) he was loyal, sweet, loved tummy rubs and to be pet..there will never be another one like him
Wife and I are ready to go but we KNOW our little girl dog would not eat. She doesn’t like change. We put them in a fancy kennel when we travel. She loves the place but it took her a while to get used to it and we introduced her gradually.
Texas A&M has a program where they will care for your pet after you die. But the upfront price is pretty steep. If people can be “who” they say they are I may state my dogs are my kids and let them get my SS and leave to A&M.
Managed to talk my wife into a “pre-replacement” for my older Cavs, as she got into the “we’ll never have another one like that” on considering that they’re getting closer to life expectancy for the breed (10-12). So their and our lives have been invigorated and blessed by a puppy who has made us all young again.
Won’t be easy to lose any of the older ones, but we’ll always have a piece of them in the others as they grow and socialize youngsters themselves.
As for the broken heart syndrome, I don’t doubt it on losing a beloved dog, but I also know it to be true with older couples who die within a short time of each other. Have several of those in my extended family.
Is actually always actually?
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-12696791
No.
Not silly at all. I've had dogs my entire life, it never gets easier losing a member of the family, which is what they are.
I divorced about a year ago after a year long separation. My dog, who's 12 years old, has been my best friend through it all. Both my sons are away at school, he's all I've had (well, except the new GF) and without him I'd have gone crazy. I thank God for every day I have with him at this point. When he goes I'll beg the Lord to take me with him. Best dog I've ever had. Life without him will be simply unbearable.
That's how I feel about every dog I've had my entire life. I don't think I can take the pain this time. I really don't.
I had a Golden when I Married 32 years ago that had epilepsy as well. What a wonderful, sweetheart of a dog! He lived 8 years until his liver failed due to the epilepsy meds. Still miss him to this day. Every January 12th I mourn his passing still.
They are absolutely wonderful dogs. Just wish he didn't have the epilepsy ....
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